Thursday, 30 August 2012

The Perfect Candidate

The Perfect Candidate
"So, what you've got for me, Ben?" John asks as he enters the control room fully packed with monitors and computers. It is one of very few computer facilities in the world with only American military-grade silicon chips. The recent stories on a possible backdoor made by the Chinese did cause stress. John never completely trusts anything produced in China. Luckily the backdoor threat was quickly dismissed by their own guys, along with external security experts. He does not worry about anyone snooping around in their networks, as there should be no ways to break in.
Except for the light from the screens it is all dark. Three men are stationed in the room. All of them CIASigInt agents. Each sitting in front of two huge computer screens. On the wall behind them there are even more screens, showing images, maps and data. The agent sitting at the middle desk turns around.
"Sir. I'm sure we have found our candidate. Male, 38 years old, works at the control centre of the plant as a guard. Security cleared and with access to several of the server rooms."
"Likely to be persuaded?"
"Very likely, Sir. He is the perfect candidate."
Ben pulls up a video on one of his screens and starts it. It shows two men having sex with each other.
"The one on his knees and elbows is our man, we call him 'Mr Shaggy'." Ben says.
"Wonderful! I guess he will not like having this video shared with friends, family, mullahs and what have you got down in that God forsaken country."
Ben turns the video off.
"Guess not,and we have plenty of footage. That idiot has a clear view from his computer on his desk to his bed. We've been recording from the integrated laptop camera for hours. He never closes the lid. And that is not all. Mr Shaggy is using proxy servers for accessing restricted social media sites outside the country. He even has a Facebook and a Twitter account."
"A gay Muslim bypassing the Iranian government. I see a few pressure points here. Almost too good to be true."
"I know. We have followed him for two months. Next to recording everything from the mic and camera on his machine we have been logging every single keystroke he has made. We have all his passwords. By taking screenshots of his computer we see what he sees. By logging all his Internet traffic we knows what he is doing online. We have access to all his accounts. We know who his friends and family are. We've gone through it all, and Mr Shaggy is our perfect candidate to plant Stuxnet at the nuclear facility."
"Well done. Flame has once more proven efficient. When are we ready to initiate?"
"As soon as you say 'go', we'll jump, Sir. Our own guy is conveniently located in Bushehr, ready to pay Mr Shaggy a visit. He will convince him, gently of course, and give him the USB thumb drive along with the instructions to load the virus onto their servers at the nuclear power plant."
"GO!"
"Yes, Sir! Let's hope this guy accepts our offer. It's the last plant to be infected. And it takes time finding a new candidate."
"I'm sure Mr Shaggy will dance along just fine. And when he is done dancing you know what to do with him."
"Of course, Sir."

Epilogue
This story is made out of facts mixed with fiction. Nothing is science fiction though. The technology mentioned here is real and was created a long time ago. The Iranian nuclear plants were infected by Stuxnet, and Flame was created for espionage purposes. The malware, or viruses, are the most advanced viruses ever discovered, and has been spread around the world. Several security experts has stated there are links connecting these malicious programs to either USA or Israel, or both countries. Links has been added to this story for the reader to be able to research the key subjects of his or hers interest. And more related news about similar cases comes up all the time. Trust no one - they are tracking you!